IBM's Watson Makes Some New Rounds

IBM Research unveiled cognitive computing technologies to help doctors make more informed, accurate diagnostic decisions.

I'm all out of Dr. Watson jokes. At least for now.

But, I do have some questions: Have you ever been to the doctor when you weren't feeling well or something just wasn't right, so the doctor ran some tests, but couldn't find anything wrong?

What if, in some of those instances, the doctor simply didn't have enough information, or a better way to try and put the symptom map together to arrive at the best diagnosis with the information he or she had?

Well, Tuesday, IBM Research unveiled a couple of new Watson-related cognitive computing technologies that may help doctors do just that: Make more informed and accurate decisions faster and help them cull new insights from electronic medical records (EMRs).

Click to enlarge. IBM scientists have trained the Watson system to interact with medical domain experts in a way that's more natural for them.

The projects, known as "WatsonPaths" and "Watson EMR Assistant," are the result of a year-long research collaboration with faculty, physicians and students at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University.

Both are key projects that will create technologies that can be leveraged by Watson to advance the technology in the domain of medicine.